Boston Flora

Tag: Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • The Cultural Landscape Foundation Guide to Boston

    In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service (NPS), The Cultural Landscape Foundation and NPS are partnering to document nationally significant landscapes in five cities. The third of five interactive online guides, the What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guide for Boston was preceded by guides to Philadelphia (March 2016) and New York City (October 2016), and will be followed by guides to cultural landscapes in Richmond, VA (Fall 2017) and Baltimore, MD (Spring 2018). From the city’s founding in 1630 to the City Beautiful movement in the 20th century, Boston’s landscape legacy is rich and nationally significant. Discover the extraordinary range of Boston’s designed landscapes through illustrated essays of more than 60 sites, all of which can be explored on an interactive map. Read the profiles of more than 50 designers and visionaries whose work has shaped Boston over the course of three hundred years. For access, visit https://tclf.org/places/city-and-regional-guides/boston.

    As an example of what you’ll find, quoted below is an essay on Brook Farm Historic Site in nearby West Roxbury. This summer, treat yourselves to some day trips exploring the many featured landscapes:

    Consisting of 179 acres and located in the West Roxbury neighborhood, the site is best known for its short tenure as a utopian community for Transcendentalists during the 1840s. The commune was founded by former Unitarian Minister George Ripley and was organized around contemporary principles of equality. Though Brook Farm was one of dozens of communal experiments in the U.S. at the time, it gained heightened notoriety due to the participation of prominent literary figures and intellectual leaders. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Blithedale Romance (1852) was inspired by his time on the commune. The community constructed multiple residences, a school, greenhouses, and other ancillary agrarian buildings. The experiment proved financially unstable, and the utopian enclave fell into disuse during the years leading up to the Civil War, when it was used as a training camp for Union soldiers. A cemetery, The Gardens at Gethsemane, was established on several acres of the historic farm in the 1870s. The site housed a Lutheran orphanage from 1872 to 1943, and Brook Farm Home, a Lutheran school and treatment center, from 1948 to 1974. Although a high-rise development was proposed in the 1980s, the site was acquired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1988. It is now operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation as a historic site.

    What remains of historic Brook Farm is its cultural landscape: rolling fields, woodlands, and wetlands. Today’s visitors can stroll, picnic, and hike. Though the historic structures from the era as a Transcendentalist commune were destroyed by fire over the years, a number of their foundations remain, allowing for interpretation and an understanding of spatial character. Brook Farm was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places the following year.

  • Thursday, May 4, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm- Henry David Thoreau at 200: From Concord to Cape Cod

    American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is best known for spending one night in jail for nonpayment of the state poll tax, and for living for two years along the shores of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, which sprouted the enduring book Walden. As part of the “Concord Quartet” Thoreau and his contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott, revolutionized political, social and literary thinking and became known as “Transcendentalists”.

    Based on several trips to Cape Cod and originally published as a series of articles, Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod is a remarkable work that depicts the natural beauty of Cape Cod and the nature that surrounds it. Thoreau, a consummate lover of the outdoors and nature is right at home in the Cape and he details his excitement of the area with naturalist portraits of the indigenous species and animals. Now 200 years after his birth, Thoreau’s essays and books are still being read, and his words are still printed on inspirational posters, greeting cards, and social media graphics. What are his basic philosophies, and how do they resound with us today? On Thursday May 4, beginning at 1 pm at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, you will learn a bit more about this “Transcendentalist” and discuss what threads connect us to him ­ including what he saw and experienced during his trips to Cape Cod.

    Corinne H. Smith is a writer, poet, and outdoor educator. She is the author of Westward I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau’s Last Journey, as well as a biography for middle-schoolers, Henry David Thoreau for Kids: His Life and Ideas, With 21 Activities. Corinne serves as an occasional interpreter and blog writer for Thoreau Farm: The Birthplace of Henry David Thoreau in Concord, MA.

    For more information please call: 508-896-3867, ext. 133. Free with admission.  The Museum’s address is 869 Main Street (Route 6A) in Brewster.

     

  • Massachusetts Holiday House Tours – A Calendar for December 4 and 5, 2010

    Tis the season.  There are a number of exciting Holiday House Tours benefiting a number of excellent organizations throughout the Commonwealth, and we alert you to the following events taking place in the beginning of December:

    On Saturday, December 4, from 11 – 4, travel to Stockbridge for Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas. Visit some of the area’s Historic Properties, B&B’s, and Inns. This self-guided tour is one of our most popular events. This year’s tour features the Mission House, Federal House Inn, Inn at Stockbridge, The Mount,  Edith Wharton’s Estate, and Ventfort Hall Museum.  Tickets are $15.00 per person (Tickets may be purchased on the day of at the Red Lion Inn only, They are not sold at the house tour properties).

    If you prefer the North Shore, on Saturday, December 4, from 10:00 – 4:30  and Sunday, December 5, from 11:30 – 4:30, enjoy Christmas in Salem, the 2010 North Fields Tour. One of Salem’s oldest historic neighborhoods is one of its least well known. As the name suggests, the North Fields area was once home to pastures and orchards as well as homes. Today, North Street and the streets to the east and west of it are known as North Salem. You are invited to explore this area not visited by Christmas in Salem since 1996 and to enjoy the private homes professionally decorated for the holidays.

    This is also an opportunity to see more of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Salem. His uncle’s house is on the tour, and he himself lived here, as well for a time. When you take the trolley back across the North River, you’ll find two more homes on Derby Street waiting to welcome you. And don’t miss the Hawthorne related sites, including The House of the Seven Gables with its own holiday celebration.  Because the tour features private homes, it is not handicapped accessible. Also, out of courtesy to our homeowners and their old pine floors, we request that you do not wear high heels. Advance tickets are $25 for members of Historic Salem, Inc. and $30 for non-members.  You may order online at www.christmasinsalem.org, or by phone at 978-745-0799. Other retail ticket locations may be found on the website.

    Do you prefer Buzzard’s Bay?  The New Bedford Preservation Society’s 19th Annual Holiday House Tour will take place Saturday, December 4 from 4 – 8, and on Sunday, December 5 from 1 – 5. Start at the Wamsutta Club, 427 County Street, New Bedford.  To attend a pre-tour brunch ($17) on Sunday from 11am-1pm (reservations recommended) call 508.997.7431. Holiday Raffle will be held at the club during tour hours.

    South Shore, you say? The Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth will sponsor a house tour on Saturday and Sunday, December 4 and 5 as well. Pilgrim Hall Museum’s fifth annual Holiday House Tour will share some of Plymouth’s finest – and sometimes hidden – architectural gems all dressed up for the holidays. Your tour ranges from private residences in North Plymouth, to the center of town, to wonderful homes down in South Plymouth. Feel the warmth of the holiday season while helping preserve the museum’s superb collection of 17th century artifacts and support its educational programs. Your ticket includes a light lunch at Plymouth Country Club. Advance ticket sales are $40 each, but after November 19 the price goes to $45 each. Call 508-746-1620 x7 for a registration brochure.

    Let’s not forget the western suburbs.  The Needham Women’s Club will hold an Historical Holiday House Tour on December 5 as well, honoring Needham’s 300th birthday, as well as the Needham Women’s Club’s 75th!  Although hours have not yet been announced, tickets will go on sale at Roche Brothers and at Sudbury Farms beginning Thursday, November 18.  Call 781-718-4983 for updated information.

    Canton Garden Club members are preparing several workshops for their Club’s Holiday House Tour entitled Joys of Christmas on Friday, December 3 and Saturday, December 4.  Visitors will be able to tour three homes, a condominium and a great room area at the condominium.  All residences are decorated to reflect each location’s individual style and charm.  For tickets ($25), visit Pratt Realty, Helen’s Hair Styling, Savoy Day Spa, or call 781-828-8552.  Hours to be announced.

    Rounding out the festivities for the first weekend in December is the Winchester Neighbors Club tour on Sunday, December 5, from 2 – 5 pm.  Four historic homes located in the Flats will be open to the public, and all proceeds will benefit the Ginn Playground Restoration Project.  More details will follow on their website, www.winchesterneighbors.com/main/more/holiday_house_tour_12_5_10/.